Reality- who to believe?

What is reality? Who determines it? If there is some ultimate resource, a highest power to be final arbiter of what is real, then that would be the end of discussion. For everyone else it is conditional, as in belief shared by a certain number of people. Orwell said “A lunatic is a minority of 1” (he has his own reality). 2 people with exclusive shared beliefs are called folie a deux. A thousand like-thinking people confidently communicate their agreed upon beliefs and that constitutes their reality.

Experience shows that delusional ideas are often fixed and people don’t want to be talked out of their beliefs. They routinely register observations confirming their belief and call it evidence. They reject the idea that coincidence or mis-perception could provide an alternate explanation.  

In this highly contentious political climate most people have already made up their minds. Good people can have absolutely opposite positions. Could the reality definition come into play here? What if the data and perception of the “facts” is based on a biased source.

If you choose, or are forced to get your information from a steady diet of Fox News, WikiLeaks, XM Patriot, Rush Limbaugh, Chris Plante, InstaPundit, and Milo Yiannopoulos then your view of what is real is going to be very different than those who do not use those resources.

If your sources of news are NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, Vox, Salon, MediaMatters, Mediaite, and Telemundo then that will influence what reality is for you.

People often have preconceived ideas and seek out confirmation in media outlets known to support their view. The independent or undecided voter still has to choose which talking heads to believe. 

Choose wisely my friends. Large powerful organizations are in a battle to determine reality. In 1984 Orwell wrote, “Who controls the past, controls the future”. There is no discussion of reality in Oceania. That is a Thought Crime.